"I feel like a lot of Australian business peoples dream to tackle China," he says. "It's an interesting challenge you know, the scale is there. I know how much interest there is from the Chinese community when it comes to speciality coffee."

Networking and six degrees of separation

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Three Thousand Thieves entry into China is being funded by a $500,000 investment from Chinese private investors Marvin Ye and Lin Lee.

Didaskalou attracted the investment through "networking and conversations and six degrees of separation".

Three Thousand Thieves is Australia's largest coffee subscription business offering customers a monthly delivery of a new Australian artisan coffee roaster.

It's growing around 65 per cent a year with a presence in both Australia and Singapore and a turnover of around $1 million.

"This idea started up as a bit of an experiment, we thought subscription models are quite interesting and developing a bit of an e-commerce business is quite interesting," Didaskalou says. "It was a great way to experiment with the upcoming roasting scene in Melbourne. I'd worked in coffee in a past life so it sort of made sense. Melbourne has more roasters per capita than any other city in the world. We are really focused on the art and craft of roasting and producing great quality coffee from beans around the world."

Three Thousand Thieves subscription offering. Credit:Mark Lobo

At the start Didaskalou says consumers were keen but it was hard to get roasters on board.

"For coffee people it's like 'Once I find my perfect coffee why would I continue to switch?' whereas for normal coffee lovers not in the scene shifting coffee perceptions from month to month appeals. It was about getting people to understand this complements your initial habit, it doesn't change it. The platform isn't really built for subscribers, it's built as a marketing voice for roasters."

Didaskalou says Melbourne is the coffee roastery capital of the world. Credit:Simon Hewson

Three Thousand Thieves business model operates by getting a "healthy wholesale rate" from its roasters but Didaskalou says its model has evolved with corporates now making up 60 per cent of customers.

"It's shifted from coffee becoming just another supplier to being an education platform," says Didasklaou. "You could run your business entirely on corporates but you'd have no marketing power."

Starting in Changsha

The next step in Three Thousand Thieves evolution is its push into the Chinese market which is starting in the city of Changsha.

"Its kind of like the Gold Coast of China and you just wouldn't expect so many super coffee enthusiasts there," says Didaskalou. "To go and do business straight away in Shanghai is not how it's done, if you pick off the top Chinese companies they all started in other cities. It's just too expensive to do business in Shanghai and Beijing so the strategy is to start from the sidelines and build a massive following online and then start to open up experience stores and flagship stores."

Three Thousand Thieves has attracted $500,000 in investment to crack the China coffee market.Credit:Justin McManus

While China is known as a nation of tea drinkers, coffee is growing quickly with Chinese coffee consumption nearly tripling in the past four years, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Coffee consumption is already larger than Australia at 3,155,000 60 kilo bags of coffee in China in comparison to 2,335,000 60 kilo bags in Australia.

The potential for growth is huge with China's population nearing 1.4 billion and Didaskalou says the sheer size of the market brings its own challenges.

"We rely in Australia on roasters to meet our supply but it is very hard to go to a market as big as China, they just won't be able to handle it," he says. "Moving into the China market we are evolving again into roasting our own stuff. It will be a whole heap of different varietals but under our brand name."

Currency challenges

Adam Smith, chief operating officer at OFX, says China can be a particularly tough market for small Australian businesses to crack.

"The Australian dollar's widespread collapse against most G10 counterparts has led to many Australian businesses now trading with China principally in USD, and recent market movements mean the cost of imports is steadily increasing," he says.

​Didaskalou is hoping his business will be well positioned for when the caffeine craze truly hits China.

"Eventually once the market matures they will have the scale to be able to dominate the green bean coffee market and buy the best coffee beans in the world," he says.